Dear fellow travellers,

would really appreciate some help with my trip to Syria and Jordan in two weeks...
the plan is:
fly to istanbul - bus to adana/antakya - bus: aleppo-damascus-amman-aqaba (any direct routes?) and then start our way up from there. reason - better to manage the time constraints, and since it's pretty much a straight route coming back through the sights anyways. i do know it's gonna be a long yourney like that, but seems safer and better time-wise to me.
then:
day 1 - aqaba (any suggestions on the best dive sites appreciated)
day 2 - wadi rum (jeep trip and spend the night in a bedouin tent)
day 3 - petra (bus early morning from wadi rum - possible? any advice on hostels near petra appreciated.)
day 4-5 - madaba (rent a car for trips to the dead sea, mt. nebo, karak(?) - any suggestions on a scenic place by the dead sea? don't suppose the public amman beach is very pretty?)
day 6 - amman (i've understood that one day is enough?)
day 7 - jerash (maybe two days as it's the festival time?)
day 8 - bosra (maybe just a few hours enough?)
day 9-10 - damascus, day-trip to Maalula
day 11 - palmyra (early morning bus from damascus, or is it better to do homs and crac first and palyra from homs?)
day 12 - homs, trip to crac
day 13 - hama and lattakia (a few hours to see hama and then on to lattakia for some relaxing. or any better suggestions for some seaside rest?)
day 14 - aleppo (and back to istanbul)

i know it's a bit cramped but don't really wanna drop anything... does it seem doable by public transport? anything great i missed and should include/replace? i do realise a lot of those places deserve more time, but nothing to do :(

any help appreciated!
and thank you very much in advance!
Mona

Are you planning to do all of this independently? Seems to be it would be a great deal easier for you just to book with a trave agent and they can give you one price and take you to all of these different spots.
WillSM

Mona, it's not hard to arrange independently most of what you want to do, but for the practical information and for the fine details about places to decide how long to spend there, you ought to be reading a guidebook. We can give some advice but ultimately forums can't be your travel agent and we can't be a substitute for a guidebook. :)

Personally, I would stay the night in Hama as I quite like the place, in preference to Homs which is a busy and uninteresting city. Have you allowed yourself enough time to see Aleppo at the end? That needs one night's stay at least, if not two. You might want to pick Tartous over Lattakia, but seaside fun in Syria isn't going to be that big a deal; I used Tartous because I wanted to see Amrit and the castle at al-Marqab.

Richard

Dont worry mate,you are thinking to make a long trip and surely independently.This would be better if you go for a travel agent for the tour arrangement.But accommodation through any travel agent is not profitable (my point of view).Si regarding accommodation you can go for any online websites,like www.asiarooms.com and many others.You can choose your choicable and affordable hotel from a wide range og hotel collection.
You can also take some help from local guides if you planned to travel solo.
So best of luck....

Mona, now, half a year after your plannings: What have you done finally. We are planning also to go to Jordan and - honestly - we like to decide by our own where to stay and how long.

Please let me know what you finally did and how it went.

Thanx, best regards, Ludger